Editing Jansenism (section)

== Jansenism in the ''parlements'' ==
=== The conjunction of Jansenism and parliamentarism ===
[[File:Parliaments and Sovereign Councils of the Kingdom of France in 1789 (fr).png|thumb|'Parliaments and Sovereign or Superior Councils of the Kingdom of France in 1789']]

The [[Parlement|''parlements'' of the ''Ancien Régime'']], and in particular the [[Parlement of Paris|''parlement'' of Paris]], had long been defenders of [[Gallicanism]] against Rome. Since the beginning of the Jansenist controversy, the ''parlements'' tended to sympathise with Jansenists, reluctant to register the papal bulls condemning the movement.

This happened upon the promulgation of the bull ''[[Unigenitus]]''. The attorney-general [[Henri François d'Aguesseau]] considered the promulgation of the bull to be proof of the fallibility of the pope. He encouraged parliamentarians not to accept the bull and wait for a reaction from the bishops. It was necessary for [[Louis XIV]] to use [[letters patent]] to force registration of the bull. Despite this, the letters ''Pastoralis officii'' were not received in 1718, which alleviated the fears of the ''appelants'' in the short term.<ref name="Chantin-1996" />{{Rp|pages=40–41}}In fact, a ''[[lit de justice]]'' was required for the bull to be registered as state law in 1730, so great was the parliamentary resistance.

René Taveneaux,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taveneaux |first=René |title=La Vie quotidienne des jansénistes aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles |date=1985 |publisher=Hachette |language=fr |trans-title=The daily Life of Jansenists in the 17th and 18th centuries}}</ref> in his ''Jansenism and Politics'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taveneaux |first=René |title=Jansénisme et politique |date=1965 |publisher=A. Colin}}</ref> underlines the importance of Jansenist recruitment among the parliamentarians of the 18th century. According to him, Jansenism had a 'bourgeois base' which dated back to the 17th century, with the Arnauld, Lemaistre, Pascal and other families, who were considered '[[Nobles of the Robe]]'. Marie-José Michel also underlines the attraction of entire elite families to Port-Royal and Jansenism from the beginning of the movement, and speaks of a "proliferating Jansenisation of elites".<ref name="Michel-2000" />{{Rp|pages=366–386}}

Lucien Goldmann's thesis is that this was an expression of class spirit, which would have taken root during the [[The Fronde|Fronde]] along with a discontent regarding the centralising [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutist]] monarchy. Faced with the growing power of the royal commissioners to the detriment of the officials (of bourgeois recruitment), the latter would have practiced increasingly anti-establishment 'critical retreat from the world'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldmann |first=Lucien |title=Le dieu caché, étude sur la vision tragique dans les Pensées de Pascal et dans le théâtre de Racine |date=1955 |publisher=Gallimard |location=Paris |language=fr |trans-title=The hidden god: study on the tragic vision in the 'Pensées' of Pascal and in the theatre of Racine}}</ref> Taveneaux moderates this interpretation with a [[Marxism|Marxist]] analysis of a 'meeting ground' between Jansenism and the bourgeoisie, arguing that the bourgeois noble was free under the Ancien Régime, detached from the seigneurial hierarchy, and that this individualistic situation, was, by some, easily associated with Jansenist morality, which preferred the development of the interior life in contrast to the splendour of [[Tridentine liturgy]], and a demanding moral rigorism rather than the easily accessible sacraments characteristic of Jesuit theology. The essentially urban basis of Jansenism also allowed this 'meeting ground' between it and the parliamentary bourgeoisie.
[[File:Christophe de Beaumont Colour.jpg|left|thumb|[[Christophe de Beaumont]] (1703–1781), archbishop of Paris, who instituted the 'confession notes' in order to rid the French [[Roman Catholic Church]] of Jansenist elements]]

=== The Jansenist cause and the parliamentary revolts of the 18th century ===
The ''parlements'', especially that of Paris, were in constant rebellion against monarchical power during the 18th century. Jansenists and ''appelants'' therefore found the parliamentarians to be a close ally. Moreover, the weapon of the Jansenists to resist both the king and the pope was legal; the '[[appeal as from an abuse]]', in order to protest an injustice and deny the pope's or a bishop's right to exercise their authority on a specific point. The ''appelants'' brought their demands before the ''parlement'', an organ of justice in which the Jansenist magistrates would employ their rhetoric and legal arsenal to combine the Jansenist cause with a defence of the independence of the ''parlements'', thus winning the support of parliamentarians who were Gallicans or resistant to royal power.<ref name="Campbell-1990">{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Peter |date=1990 |title=Aux origines d'une forme de lutte politique : avocats, magistrats et évêques. Les crises parlementaires et les jansénistes (1727-1740) |journal=Chroniques de Port-Royal |issue=39 |pages=153–155}}</ref> However, "most often, Jansenist magistrates carefully avoided any reference to religious convictions, aware that a theological discourse would have been inadmissible in an assembly of judges."<ref name="Campbell-1990" />{{Rp|page=155}} Jansenism was therefore readily confused with the incessant parliamentary struggles of the 18th century, while its theological nature faded. Numerically speaking, the presence of Jansenists was modest. For Paris, about a quarter of magistrates in the 1730s were Jansenists, including a group of lawyers influential enough to initiate two general strikes of their order in 1732 with the aim of bolstering the independence of the ''parlement''.<ref name="Chantin-1996" />{{Rp|pages=43–44}}

One of these influential lawyers was {{Interlanguage link|Louis Adrien Le Paige|fr}}. Bailiff of the [[Tour du Temple]], which bore the right of asylum and was therefore one of the most important hubs of the Jansenist network, taking advantage of the right to harbour numerous banned publications. The Temple also housed the famous 'Perrette box', which contained the Jansenists' financing fund; an object of curiosity and fantasy among anti-Jansenists. Another of these lawyers was Gabriel-Nicolas Maultrot, nicknamed the 'second-class lawyer' because of the many ''appelant'' priests he defended.

The most significant conflict involving the parliamentarians and Jansenism was the affair of the 'confession notes'. In 1746, the archbishop of Paris [[Christophe de Beaumont]] proposed that the faithful must be able to provide a proof of a 'confession note' signed by a priest who approved ''Unigenitus'' in order to receive [[extreme unction]]. The measure encountered major opposition, and many legal appeals were filed which were quashed by the king's council. In 1749, a large demonstration occurred after the burial of a Jansenist college principal who died without being granted confession. Among the four thousand people who comprised the procession, there were many parliamentarians.<ref name="Gazier-1924">{{Cite book |last=Gazier |first=Augustin |year=1924 |title=Histoire générale du mouvement janséniste…, Tome 2 |pages= |language=fr |trans-title=General history of the Jansenist movement, vol. 2}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=60–61}}

An important religious event of the second half of the 18th century was the [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus|expulsion of the Jesuits in 1764]], which united Jansenism and the monarchy for a time. However, Jansenism joined the side of the magistrates in their revolt against the policies of [[René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou|Chancellor de Maupeou]] and his [[Maupeou Triumvirate|Triumvirate]] to destroy the parliamentary system. The most radical members of the revolt joined what was called the 'patriot party', the spearhead of pre-[[French Revolution|Revolutionary]] protest. The synthesis of their struggles and demands with the theses of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] was to give substance to the ideological beginnings of the French Revolution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Kley |first=Dale |date=1989 |title=Du parti janséniste au parti patriote : l'ultime sécularisation d'une tradition religieuse à l'époque du chancelier Maupéou, 1770-1775 |journal=Chroniques de Port-Royal}}</ref>